Related papers: Efficiency fluctuations in microscopic machines
We consider the basic, thermodynamic properties of an elementary micro-machine operating at colloidal length scales. In particular, we track and analyse the driven stochastic motion of a carefully designed micro-propeller rotating unevenly…
The fluctuation theorems have remained one of the cornerstones in the study of systems that are driven far out of equilibrium, and they provide strong constraints on the fraction of trajectories that behave atypically in light of the second…
We compare the fluctuation relations for work and entropy in underdamped and overdamped systems, when the friction coefficient of the medium is space-dependent. We find that these relations remain unaffected in both cases. However, for the…
Understanding the physics of non-equilibrium systems remains as one of the major open questions in statistical physics. This problem can be partially handled by investigating macroscopic fluctuations of key magnitudes that characterise the…
Entropy and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem are at the heart of statistical mechanics near equilibrium. Driving a system beyond the linear response regime leads to (i) the breakdown of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and (ii) a…
The standard definition of particle number fluctuations based on point-like particles neglects the excluded volume effect. This leads to a large and systematic finite-size scaling and an unphysical surface term in the isothermal…
We introduce heat engines working in the nano-regime that allow to extract a finite amount of deterministic work. We show that the efficiency of these cycles is strictly smaller than Carnot's, and we associate this difference with a…
The efficiency of an heat engine is traditionally defined as the ratio of its average output work over its average input heat. Its highest possible value was discovered by Carnot in 1824 and is a cornerstone concept in thermodynamics. It…
The laws of thermodynamics apply to biophysical systems on the nanoscale as described by the framework of stochastic thermodynamics. This theory provides universal, exact relations for quantities like work, which have been verified in…
The efficiency of microscopic heat engines in a thermally heterogenous environment is considered. We show that, as a consequence of the recently discovered entropic anomaly, quasi-static engines, whose efficiency is maximal in a fluid at…
Small systems in contact with a heat bath evolve by stochastic dynamics. Here we show that, when one such small system is weakly coupled to another one, it is possible to infer the presence of such weak coupling by observing the violation…
A quantum mechanical generalization of superstatistics is presented here based on the positive operator valued measure transformation property of the system density matrix. This procedure reveals that the origin of the fluctuating factors…
Turbulent flows are out-of-equilibrium because the energy supply at large scales and its dissipation by viscosity at small scales create a net transfer of energy among all scales. Here, the energy cascade is approximated by a combined…
We develop non-equilibrium theory by using averages in time and space as a generalized way to upscale thermodynamics in non-ergodic systems. The approach offers a classical perspective on the energy dynamics in fluctuating systems. The rate…
Previously derived expressions for the characteristic function of work performed on a quantum system by a classical external force are generalized to arbitrary initial states of the considered system and to Hamiltonians with degenerate…
The total entropy production fluctuations are studied in some exactly solvable models. For these systems, the detailed fluctuation theorem holds even in the transient state, provided initially the system is prepared in thermal equilibrium.…
Molecular motors are known to have the high efficiency of energy transformation in the presence of thermal fluctuation. Motivated by the surprising fact, recent studies of thermal ratchet models are showing how and when work should be…
The interplay between thermodynamics, general relativity and quantum mechanics has long intrigued researchers. Recently, important advances have been obtained in thermodynamics, mainly regarding its application to the quantum domain through…
In nano-scale systems coupled to finite-size reservoirs, the reservoir temperature may fluctuate due to heat exchange between the system and the reservoirs. To date, a stochastic thermodynamic analysis of heat, work and entropy production…
We study a spatial diffusion process generated by velocity fluctuations of intermittent nature. We note that intermittence reduces the entropy production rate while enhancing the diffusion strength. We study a case of space-dependent…